Gillian Foulger is Professor of Geophysics at the University of Durham where she has worked since 1985 on earthquake seismology and plate tectonics. She lived and researched in Iceland for seven years, where she acquired a mistrust of theories that do not fit practical observations without contortion. She manages the world-famous website www.mantleplumes.org and is widely acclaimed for leading the global debate regarding the existence of mantle plumes. For this she was awarded the prestigious Price Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society in 2005.